Murph is having himself a busy August Bank Holiday weekend, not only taking to Reading & Leeds’ main stage with The Wombats, but also the BBC Introducing Stage to debut his new project, Love Fame Tragedy – with a guest spot from Dan from Bastille, no less. In the shaded confines of the Reading backstage area, Dork checked in to see how things were going before it all kicked off.
Hiya, Murph, how are things in going in your world?
It’s alright, I flew in yesterday, and I feel like shit. I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me.
You do indeed – a secret set with Love Fame Tragedy – how do you prep for that alongside a Wombats main stage slot?
I’ve never done it before, so I don’t know, but it’ll be the very first gig as Love Fame Tragedy. At a festival thing, it’s pretty bold, but we’ll see how it goes. I can’t let my hair down too much this weekend until that gig’s done. I’m doing Reading today, then up to Leeds, then back down here.
Are you doing Love Fame Tragedy in Leeds too?
No, just down here.
Is there a fear around doing Love Fame live for the first time?
We’ve done rehearsals in LA, and that felt good, so I think it’s just more a case of ‘doing it’ really. Just gotta do it now. There is fear and anxiety and all of those naughty words around it, but I’ve just got to get on stage and do it at the end of the day really.
So how has it settled now the wheels are properly in motion with LFT?
It’s good, it’s going better than I thought, but I’m a bit of a pessimistic person. It’s going really well, but I feel a sense of real excitement, which is more important than any kind of data or anything. I feel generally excited about the project, and I’ve got so many more good songs to come.
And The Wombats on the main stage again!
Yeah, we did it last year, but a bit earlier on. I’m looking forward to it. Last year was insane, so if it’s even half as good, then it’ll be great.
After doing Wembley Arena in that time, has that helped you step up even more to larger stages?
Because the album did well and we played venues we got more production, so it’s still the same. I think when you get to a certain level, you’ve got to step up because people expect something. We’re basically still touring the same show as we did then.
You’re doing BBC Introducing with Love Fame Tragedy – how do you bounce from these vast stage size differences?
The last Wombats album we did this ‘back to the toilets’ kind of tour, so I’m pretty good at jumping from large to small places. Hopefully, LFT doesn’t stay too small for long.
What’s the future looking like for The Wombats?
Great, we’ve got some songs in the bag, and we’re going to do some more writing in November, but my head’s definitely more in Love Fame Tragedy than The Wombats right now, just because it has to be. We need to get all this shit done. But yeah, I’m looking forward to album number five.
Words: Steven Loftin
